American Type Founders Company Bodoni Drawings

American Type Founders Company, founded in 1892, followed several steps in the manufacture of lead-alloy type that was used in letterpress printing. It was an exacting mechanical process from design to foundry casting. Morris Fuller Benton was the head of ATF’s type design department from 1900–1937. Following is the workflow that he used to design a typeface based on historical sources.

Initial pencil drawings were made from careful studies of original printed exemplars. For the ATF Bodoni, Benton would have consulted original printed books by Italian printer, Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813).

The letterforms would be enlarged to about 10 inches high by a delineating apparatus. This allowed fine adjustments in the outline for evaluation and refinement by the designer.

Working drawings were then made of the approved typeface designs. These included measurement notations in the margins. The ATF Bodoni drawings in this collection are evidence of this stage of production.

A metal pattern plate was made for each character by using a pantograph to trace the working drawings’ letterforms into a wax matrix. This shape was then electrotyped in metal like lead or zinc.

The pattern could then be affixed to a matrix-engraving machine. The raised pattern would be traced with a stylus inline with a pantograph. This motion could reduce the letter shape to various point sizes as it was routed into a steel bar. This would become the mould or matrix from which type could be cast. Many slight scaling adjustments could be made in this process.

The final step involved locking the recessed matrix into a casting machine. It methodically injected molten type metal into the matrix, and formed it into regular rectangular type bodies of equal height. The character cast in relief for letterpress printing was on the end of the piece of type.

Morris Benton’s 1909 ATF Bodoni is thought to be one of the most faithful revivals of the original 18th century type. It was a successful ATF product and evolved to include related designs in the family like several bold and italic versions and a decorative shaded typeface.